Caring for children around the world: A view from HOME

Abstract

This review examines cultural and socioeconomic variations in parenting as represented by the original and adapted versions of the HOME Inventory. There was specific focus on three aspects of the family environment where cultural models of parenting and access to resources are thought to be operative and for which there is evidence of impact on child well-being: parental responsiveness, discipline practices, and exposure to stimulating materials and experiences. Findings revealed meaningful impacts of culture and SES in all three areas. Not only did mean differences emerge across countries but different alliances between indicators, presumably representing the same parenting construct, also emerged. The review also revealed a tendency for researchers to modify the HOME consistent with local beliefs and practices concerning what children need, what families need, and the role of parents in fostering particular aspects of development. Despite differences in cultural models of parenting around the world, the studies showed rather consistent relations between exposure to stimulation and parental responsiveness and children's adaptive functioning. Associations with physical punishment were somewhat less clear.Culture is a complex system composed of many loosely interlocked, sometimes causally connected elements, including parenting beliefs and practices (D'Andrade, 2001). In any society, what parents do and how it relates to child well-being is very much determined by an intricate interplay between these forces and prevailing environmental conditions (economic, political, etc.). Culture helps determine both how parents interpret the needs of children and how they react to those needs. Kitayama (2002) argued that it is difficult to penetrate the distinctive features of a culture, for there is a dynamism in how such features are fully instantiated in daily routines, interpersonal rituals, styles of conversation, and relations with social institutions that make up behavioural environments. It is easier to map routines and practices than to fully appreciate how they operate within individuals, families, or communities (De Munck, 2001). Part of the dynamism as regards how culture is implicated in parenting derives from the fact that societal goals represent a fluid blend of what is thought possible and what is deemed desirable. Accordingly, parenting practices in two societies can look remarkably similar when children are infants, only to diverge during middle childhood and adolescence. Likewise, parenting behaviours that align in one society to affect children's development (for good or ill) may not be aligned in a second society (as will be seen throughout this review). These differences may reflect cultural values; also they may reflect other aspects of family ecology. In that regard, it is important to remember that little things may mean a lot. It can be instructive to examine how often parents do certain things and how their patterns of behaviour function in relation to children's outcomes. By so doing, researchers m...

Adjustment of school-aged children and adolescents growing up in at-risk families: Relationships between family variables and individual, relational and school adjustment

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Socioeconomic gradients in child development in very young children: Evidence from India, Indonesia, Peru, and Senegal

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